The overhead cables for the Downtown streetcar project will be electrified Tuesday, officials said.

They will get a jolt of electricity of up to 650 volts DC, officials said, warning El Pasoans to avoid getting shocked.

“From this point forward, all lines should always be considered to be energized,” officials said in a statement.

The $97 million project, being built by the Camino Real Regional Mobility Authority, has a 4.8-mile route in the Downtown area that the cables run along.

The testing phase of the Overhead Catenary System is set to last several months. It will include testing elements such as power substations and the overhead lines that will power the streetcars.

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Electrical subcontractors from Paso del Norte Trackworks last year set the first of more than 400 poles at the intersection of First Avenue and Kansas Street. The poles will carry power to El Paso’s streetcars. The poles are part of the Overhead Catenary System. They will be placed along the 4.8-mile route. The OCS will power the streetcars by carrying electrical DC power through catenary wires above the route. The streetcars will draw power through an overhead mast mounted on top of the vehicles, which make contact with the overhead catenary electrical wire.(Photo: RUBEN R. RAMIREZ/EL PASO TIMES)

Officials said no one should touch the wires or anything touching the wires at any time.Specially outfitted trucks will ride the streetcar route with a police escort to conduct the testing, which is expected to have a minimal impact on motorists, pedestrians and cyclists.

Two of the six vintage President’s Conference Committee streetcars that were used in El Paso until 1974 are expected to arrive in the city by early February.

They are being restored by the Brookville Equipment Corp., which is based in Pennsylvania. The company is known for manufacturing and restoring streetcars, as well as locomotive engines and mining machinery.

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Crews install overhead power lines that will supply the power needed for the El Paso streetcars once they begin to operate in 2018.(Photo: RUBEN R. RAMIREZ/EL PASO TIMES)

Testing on the route and cable system will continue when the first streetcars arrive.

The streetcars will run north on Stanton Street from Downtown to the University of Texas at El Paso. The route will loop around the campus and back south on Oregon Street, making 27 stops along the way.

Sun Metro will take over operation of the streetcars at an estimated cost of about $2.5 million a year.